Wednesday, June 16, 2010

An Act of God?


"Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life
End over end neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life." --Bobby Bare
[ Via: AP ]

MONROE, Ohio —

A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown in a game of football.

2 comments:

said...

Well, I guess he at least permitted it to happen, even if he didn't positively will it.
Maybe he doesn't like bad statues? (or thought this one was no great loss)
Btw, how does a statue burn?
It can't have been made of stone, then.

Melanchthon said...

I think it was made of a fiberglass composite. (It was also known as "butter Jesus," looking as if it had been sculpted out of that substance.) All that is left is the wire framing.

While feeling sorry for the folks at Solid Rock, it's not a great loss for the art world.